Guitar Jack Assembly

Now that all the major drilling is complete I can install some of the other components I ordered from my previous posts.  This entry will cover the installation of the guitar jack.

Here are the genuine Fender parts for the guitar jack.

I soldered 2 wires 1 red for hot and 1 black for ground to the two contacts of the jack.  It is very important to connect the wires properly.  A simple google search will tell you which wire needs to go to which connector.

The guitar jack with wires is attached to the guitar jack plate with a nut.  Make sure the guitar cable contact connector (the bit that looks like the letter J) is on the opposite side of the jack plate.  This guarantees the smooth insertion and removal of the guitar cable.

A second view of the assembled guitar jack.

Insert the wires through the guitar jack cavity into the main body cavity.

Drill 2 small guide hole and screw in the 2 small screws and you are done.

Drill Baby Drill

My father-in-law has a drill press, which is the only tool of choice to make the proper holes for the 2 post pegs.  The gold post peg is 10 mm in diameter. I don't own a 10 mm drill bit so I had to improvise a little. 3/8 inch is about 9.5 mm, from my research this was good because you do want to have a VERY tight fit.  My research also stated that I needed to be careful when pounding in the gold pegs so that the holes don't split.  I taped off the proper depth on my drill bit so that I knew I was deep enough.  (Note: I didn't account for the rounded end so my holes originally were not deep enough.  I had to go back and make them deeper.  I guess my previous post should be titled "Measure Twice Cut Twice")

After a few practice runs on some scrap pieces of wood I was ready to drill for real. Drill bit is in place and the guitar is clamped down.

The drill press has a nice laser "X marks the spot" guide on it.  I'm lining up the first hole.

Lining up to drill the second hole. You can see the first hole has already been drilled.

Aftermath of drilling the second hole.

Here are the two holes after removing sawdust and drafting tape.

I place a towel over the top of the guitar and pounded in the gold pegs with a rubber mallet. It was definitely a tight fit and I had to use a lot of force towards the end to get the pegs flush with the body.  But again everything went smoothly, no splits or any damage to the body.  I screwed the 2 posts into the gold peg.  The Wilkinson tremolo will pivot on these 2 posts.

This last image shows the Wilkinson tremolo in place resting on the 2 posts.  It fits nicely into the hole in the body and has plenty of clearance to pivot up and down without any rubbing.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

In the image below you can see that the body came with a pre-cut hole for a tremolo system.  This hole is made for the standard Fender 6 screw tremolo system I mentioned in a previous posting.  But as luck might have it, the 2 point Wilkinson tremolo system I like was designed to fit in this exact same hole and use the same back cavity for the tension coils.

This image shows the back cavity that will contain the tension coils (springs).

I own 3 guitar routing templates for altering/customizing/destroying guitar bodies.  One of these templates is specifically designed for the 2 point Wilkinson tremolo system.  You can get similar templates online for free, they are a pdf version that you download and print.  I purchased mine from Stewmac online supply store. Stewmac has fantastic supplies for hobbyists (and professionals) that want to mess around with guitar projects.

If you look closely at the template you can see the main tremolo hole and 6 small holes on one side and 2 small holes on the other side.  One side of the template is used for the Fender 6 screw tremolo system and the other side is used for the 2 point Wilkinson tremolo system.  To avoid any confusion for myself I marked the side I want to work with, with a W and an arrow pointing toward the neck of the guitar.
It is also very important to find the midpoint between the 2 points. This midpoint will fall on the center-line of the guitar.   First I scratched a line through the 2 points. Next I marked the midpoint between the 2 points with a Sharpie. Last, I scratched a perpendicular line at that midpoint.

Now I could have just placed the template down and lined it up with the pre-made tremolo hole, marked the two holes I need and be done with it.  However I want to double check the template to make sure it is correct.  Therefore I need to do some measurements.

I place some drafting tape down on the guitar and began to mark my center-line. I recommend using a laser level to find the center-line, but I used a piece of string that I ran down the center of the neck making sure that the string went through the center of the fret dots (you can see 4 of them in the image below).  I made a number of marks on the drafting tape and then...well...connected the dots with a colored pen.

The bridge location is at a distance of 25 1/4 inches (for a stratocaster) from the nut at the top end of the fretboard. I made a mark on my red center-line 25 1/4 inches from the head of the guitar. I then made a perpendicular line at this location. So my guitar center-line is in red and my bridge distance of 25 1/4 inches is marked in green.  The 2 posts for the Wilkinson tremolo will be located on the green line.

The moment of truth! Did the template line up? Yes, it did!  Spot on! as David Gilmour might say. I used double side tape to hold the template in place and I used a black Sharpie to mark the locations for the 2 post holes.

Things are going very smoothly so far.  I removed the template and placed the Wilkinson tremolo in the hole and lined up how the bridge would sit and did some extra checking.  I used a piece of string and placed one end in the top groove (low E string) and ran it to the bridge to see if the string would lie on the fretboard.  Looks pretty good!

I did the same for the bottom string groove (the high E string) and that looked pretty good as well.

Well everything looks pretty good. I've done multiple measurements so I guess it's time to cut!

Fourth Purchase: A Wilkinson 2 Point Floating Tremolo Bridge $95.98(Total: $449.07)

My purchase this month was a Wilkinson 2 point floating bridge.  I purchased this from Carvin Guitars located in San Diego California.  I am a very loyal customer and Carvin products and distributed products are top quality at a very affordable price.

This is a photo showing that the Wilkinson tremolo includes all the hardware (coil springs) that are needed for a complete installation.

Tremolo Bridge System

I will try to give a very brief explanation of a guitar tremolo system, also known as whammy bar. The tremolo arm is a device that allows guitar players to increase or decrease the string tension. By increasing the the string tension or by pulling up on the tremolo arm the note will rise in pitch. Conversely, by pushing down on the tremolo arm the string tension will decrease and lower the pitch of the note. Back in the 1950s Fender guitar introduced the synchronized tremolo. This tremolo system had the bridge pivoting on six screws. Shown here;

The tension of the strings pulled the bridge up and forward, therefor coil springs, commonly 3, are used to offset the tension of the strings by pulling the bridge down and back. These coil springs are located in a chamber found on the back of the guitar.

This is the exact type of tremolo system that David Gilmour has on his black strat.

Again I am deviating from the true layout of components of the REAL Black Strat to add components that I have become a costumed to over the years I have been playing.

The first guitar project I did was a kit from Carvin guitars. This kit included a 2 point floating tremolo system. The concept is very similar to the 6 point system I briefly explained above however it uses two points of contact. Shown here;

The same counter tension coil springs are used to equal out the string tension.

Since my custom blue Carvin Bolt uses this 2 point floating tremolo bridge, I decided to use it in this guitar project as well. I understand that making this decision is making this project more of an influenced by David Gilmour's Black Strat than an actual copy of the Black Strat. But as I stated in an earlier post, I do want to take advantage of more modern technology and use guitar components that I like.